The present invention relates to conduit roof supports, and more particularly relates to the use of supports for positioning pipes and the like on roof surfaces and securing the pipes and the like thereto.
It is well known in the art that supports are prerequisite for positioning and securing a plurality of conduits such as pipe, electrical cable, and gas lines to roofs atop buildings. In particular, an established procedure has been to use wooden blocks cut from treated or redwood 4.times.4-sized lumber as a means for separating implaced conduit from the roof surface. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a limitation of the use of such wooden blocks is that the roof surface must be flat in order to properly seat and secure the blocks thereto. Obviously, if a block is not securely attached to a roof surface, then any conduit, in turn, attached to the block will be susceptible to untimely separation therefrom due to unbalanced load, wind and other weather affects, and deterioration of the wood.
It has been observed that wooden blocks situated atop roofs have a life cycle of about three to five years because of external conduit stresses imposed thereupon and deterioration attributable to invasion of nails and the like into the block, and, of course, weather conditions and the like. Unfortunately, as these blocks deteriorate with time--typically undiscovered to building inhabitants and owners--damage to the roof surface occurs, thereby causing costly and even hazardous leaks and roof repair to occur. Naturally-occurring expansion and contraction of pipes and other conduit seated in such blocks eventually cause tears in the roof surface, undermining its integrity and, in turn, causing leaks and damage. Resulting repairs are a necessity, the extent of which are generally related to the timeliness of discovery of the leaks and damage. It will be readily appreciated that the timely maintenance of this conduit support system is critical to both the integrity of the underlying roof surface and the integrity of the conduits affixed thereon.
There have been attempts in the art to improve the means and method for positioning and securing conduit--particularly pipe--to roof surfaces of commercial buildings and the like. For example, Pruyne, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,934, discloses a pipe supporting structure that is secured to a substantially flat roof surface and having a V-shaped pocket-like recess affixed thereon for receiving and securing pipe thereto. Pipe is supported within this recess by its tapered, upwardly divergent walls that accommodate pipe sliding movement attributable to expansion and contraction. This support is designed to uniformly distribute pipe weight regardless of the flatness of the roof surface
Another development in the art is described by Curtis in U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,653. Similar to the Pruyne disclosure, this patent teaches a pipe supporting structure that is configured with a V-shaped pocket-like recess that includes a roller contained in a trough for minimizing resistance to pipe sliding movement attributable to expansion and contraction. Commercial embodiments of these V-shaped pipe supports are marketed by Miro Industries as "Pillow Block" pipestands. Consistent with these two underlying patents, the Miro pipestands have been constructed with a curved base to prevent roof-surface gouging and ripping, and to absorb shock and to accommodate pipe thermal expansion and contraction, and thereby reducing erosion of the roof-surface because of frictional forces. Unlike its predecessor art, these commercial pipestands are apparently are recommended to be installed in a free-standing posture wherein no physical attachment to the roof surface beneath has been established. Rigid deck plates may be used in conjunction with the pipestands to artificially create a flat rooftop surface.
Notwithstanding these developments in the art, there appears to be no apparatus for positioning conduit atop a roof--in both horizontal and vertical dispositions--that enables cascading or stacking of conduits in a parallel arrangement, or cascading of conduits in an end-to-end arrangement. Accordingly, these limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with the present invention, and improved means and techniques are provided that are usefull for position and securing conduits to roof-surfaces while simultaneously assuring that roof-surface longevity is sustained by accommodating natural conduit thermal movements and preventing damage to the roof-surface.